Our Achievements

More Freedom for Less Money

Just Liberty can’t take all the credit, because we work in bipartisan coalition with many other organizations (Texas Public Policy Foundation, Texas Fair Defense Project, Austin Justice Coalition, Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, ACLU of Texas and more). That said, there are a few victories where the Just Liberty team has played a key role.

Ending the Driver Responsibility Program

Starting on September 1, 2019 the State of Texas will waive $2.5 billion in unpaid fees under the now repealed Driver Responsibility Program (DRP.) Yes. Billion. And 650,000 Texas drivers whose only remaining issue was an unpaid DRP fee will get their drivers license back and finally be able to drive legally again. Some of these drivers have been waiting years for this moment.

We are very proud to have been part of a multi-session effort to not only repeal the program, but do so in a way designed to benefit all Texans. Repeal bills have been filed every session for the past decade or more, and in 2017 repeal came close to passage. But that bill threatened to replicate the same problems that were created by the DRP, so we opposed it and suggested another way. In 2019 the bill authors picked up key recommendations and the bill sailed through both chambers.

Reducing unnecessary arrest

Police can arrest anyone for the most minor traffic violation. Arrests for minor charges like “failure to signal a lane change” allow a police officer to search a car and its driver without the usual 4th amendment protections, and when they find nothing, the driver goes to jail for a violation than should be addressed with a simply traffic ticket. Just Liberty has prioritized ending these costly, unnecessary arrests that violate our constitutional rights, and we’ve started to see local success. Against heavy opposition from police unions, the City of Austin has removed authorization for this behavior from its General Orders and passed an ordinance to eliminate the practice. The ordinance after six months has reduced unnecessary Class C arrests to just a handful, and after a period of further officer training we expect such arrests to be a thing of the past. We are now working to take this reform to Texas’ other big cities.

Stop mass incarceration

Just Liberty (and our team members prior to the creation of Just Liberty) have been deeply involved in the slow passage of incremental reforms that have turned the tide. As of August 31, 2018, Texas’ prison population was at 145,018 – as as low as it’s been in two decades, and down seven percent from a high of 156,126 in 2008.

But Texas’ population has boomed over the intervening years, so the overall incarceration rate has declined significantly. In 1999, Texas had 149,684 prisoners. But the state’s population back then was 20.4 million. By 2018, the state population was up to 28.7 million. Texas’ incarceration rate per 100,000 people was 734; in 2018, it was 505. That’s a 31 percent decline. Texas got a LOT bigger while our prison population actually declined. Crime declined too.

But there’s more. Ten years ago more than 700,000 Texans were in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole. Texas had the nation’s highest overall rate of people under the control of the corrections system. Now. after huge population growth, the overall number is 684,000 and Texas ranks about average. The biggest drop? People under direct supervision of a probation officer for a property crime — thanks to reforms lead by the Texas Public Police Foundation and worked hard by members of the Just Liberty team.

Fines and fees

Also in September of this year, new rules will go into effect that protect people who go to court to address unpaid fines. While we advocated unsuccessfully this year for an end to arrests for nonpayment of fines and fees (particularly ending warrant roundups and arrests on warrants for unpaid traffic tickets,) lawmakers saw fit to grant protection from arrest for those who voluntarily go to court to try and address their nonpayment with a judge. The new statute encourages the judge to consider a person’s ability pay and may result in the expanded use of fee waiver authority that has gone largely unused before now.

Texans routinely “choose” a jail stay as a form of payment for their tickets, a choice that is costly to both taxpayers and drivers. Meanwhile jurisdictions that instead negotiate payments that people can afford actually collect more of the unpaid traffic ticket revenue than Texas Counties do relying heavily on warrant roundups and arrest. So we have a long way to go, but we’re happy to take a big first step.